Editing CS Newsletter for the Netherlands 2010.1 (section)

=CS Netherlands news=

==CS location-database fixing==

Couchsurfing the Netherlands Geography

Among the different groups of volunteers who contribute to the site improvement, there is a team in charge of fixing and maintaining the Couchsurfing location database. This database contains the list of countries, regions, provinces and cities that you use when you select your location in your profile, when you do a CouchSearch or when you select the eventlocation.

Since last October, the team has started a comprehensive correction of the database for the Netherlands. This process is done province by province. As we write these lines, the provinces Noord-Holland, Zuid-Holland, Utrecht and Flevoland are completed while Noord-Brabant is in progress.

The corrections consists of:
* checking the spelling of places names
* relocating cities into the right province
* merging cities when needed (like Etten and Leur which should be Etten-Leur in Noord Brabant)
* merging wrongly listed districts names with the city they are part of (like Statenkwartier which was merged with The Hague)
* adjusting the cities coordinates (latitude and longitude) from which distances between cities are calculated: this is used when you make a CouchSearch with a x kilometers radius.

All these changes aim to make it easier for surfers and hosts to find each other, as this is the core of Couchsurfing.

==Family welcome Netherlands==

[http://www.couchsurfing.org/group.html?gid=23160 Family welcome Netherlands]

It all started with a few people that like to Couchsurf while taking their [http://images.couchsurfing.us.s3.amazonaws.com/21KOQ15/4084390_l_09ffe8f3e570d1bf22d06e9168714572.jpg children along]. 
They formed a group, and soon many members popped-up who showed interest in sharing experiences and inviting other
families to their homes. 

[http://images.couchsurfing.us.s3.amazonaws.com/21KOQ15/5618745_l_faa96418804b4343f10e66de23234d14.jpg International Family Meetings]
were soon to be organised. Everyone was very enthusiastic about the way their children started to get involved in hospitality, sharing, making new (inter)national friends and the art of having fun while dealing with language barriers.

Not soon after an official Family Welcome Group Netherlands was created. In this group Dutch families come together to share their experiences. Also, because of the group you can easily find other family Couchsurfers travelling around and seeking for a place to stay in The Netherlands. 

This spring we hope to organise a meeting where many [http://images.couchsurfing.us.s3.amazonaws.com/21KOQ15/4859304_l_379957ef1e13ebcbd0b04a1a2d2db155.jpg families] will be part of. A meeting where the children can meet and play, the parents can enjoy and tell. But mostly a meeting where we can all share this great thing called Family Couchsurfing! 

Remember you don't have to be a family yourself to join the Family Couchsurfing Community. You are more than welcome to join us anytime when you like to host, surf or share experiences with families. 

We hope to welcome everyone soon!